Matic made just three appearances for Chelsea in his first spell at the club before being traded in 2011 as part of the £25m deal which saw David Luiz go the other way.

The 25-year-old is convinced he can make a bigger impact this time and said: “When I first went to Chelsea I was very young and there were great players in my position.

“To be honest, I really had little chance to play back then. Now it's different. I'm 25; I'm not the same player who left Chelsea. I'm sure he [Roman Abramovich] knows that. Now I have the opportunity to go back and work with one of the best managers in the world.”

As Standard Sport revealed yesterday, Benfica asked for two Chelsea players in return to add more value to the deal. One of those was Gael Kakuta and it is believed the other was midfielder Oriol Romeu, who is currently on loan at Valencia, but their request was refused.